Earth 13
The Reports of Agent CB-66 Agent CB-66, code name Linus, was sent on a reconnaissance mission to Earth 13. These are the reports he sent back. It appears he tried to send many more reports but not all were received. This problem seemed to get worse as his mission continued though agent CB-66 was entirely unaware that his missives were no longer being received. He never returned from his mission, and at this point we are unsure if his transmitter stopped functioning altogether or if he was finally eliminated during his travels. The various reports and excerpts we received have been arranged according to the regions he visited. Britain: Day 1 - Day 6 "Day 3: This world is strange. I find myself unable to describe the oddities that plague my visit and consume my concentration. I will begin by saying I am not sure if this world is of the future or the past. After a short travel from my entrance, I have arrived at Londinium. The culture and technology of this place seem out of sync with themselves. They seem to have reached a level of social egalitarianism consistent with late 20th or earth 21st century Earth 1, yet their political divisions remind me more of the age of Victoria. Furthermore they seem singularly obsessed with superstition regarding monsters and mayhem. I am not sure if these streets are lit by gas lamps because they do not have the technology for light bulbs, or because of some obscure energy crisis. I will investigate further before reporting further. Day 5: Imperator Woden wants a report on geopolitics. Unfortunately the geopolitics of these lands are not much clearer than anything else. The people of Londinium speak proudly of their empire, but I am not sure if this is some form of the British Empire that managed to survive, or a new empire constructed in the wake of events that shaped this world. The people of Albion refer to their ally the American republic, though I am not sure if it is an independent nation or somehow a colony. Frankly I am not even sure they know. Trade seems to have broken down somewhat, and travel is increasingly rare for these people. Their leaders warn of the machinations of the Red Empire. They tell stories of Communist cultists who rule over an empire including dark Siberian wastelands and vampiric Romanian republic. I am not sure what to believe. Day 6: I can no longer ignore the ╧æß»hëå┼├♀~⌡▌┴"├" The transmission cuts out here. Organizations Anti-Fiend Factions The Ministry of Shadows Dedicated to protecting civilization from supernatural horrors. They evolved from an Imperial British intelligence group which gradually became more independent. They have ties to British Secret Service, the Admiralty, and the Church. Stephen Woden - A high ranking Intelligence Commander in charge of supernatural operations against the Red Empire in the third Great Game. While loyal, he has his own agenda. James Woden - A Ministry seer. He is also one of the Ministry's top monster hunters. Jordan Alexander - Ministry analyst and attaché to the Cathay Ambassador Sean Raymond - Captain of a submarine merchant fleet which secretly supplies information to the Ministry of Shadows. Jadon Villarreal - An explorer. Most famous for making a functioning map for the road of thorns, and killing a leviathan on the Abyssal Sea. House Woden In 1936, Stephen and James Woden created a Foundation on Earth 13 to battle the abominations created by the First Unnamed War. It involved many people: The Organization Nobody is sure who the Organization is. Some think that it was an old laboratory made to learn about - and protect the populace from - anomalous beings. That's most of what anybody knows. Pro-Fiend Factions Cult of Nanomine Prior to the First Unnamed War, humans made contact with the Unnamed Ones. They learned how to open an Einstein-Rosen bridge to the parallel Ethereal and Infernal Planes. On October 31, 864, they did. This caused the First Unnamed War, releasing all sorts of fiendish, eldritch, and undead abominations to roam the Earth as inhabitants. The Red Empire The cult of the One People took control of a vast empire. It is divided into many states and provinces: * The Crimson Metropolis ** The capital of the Empire. It was ruined during a mundane war, and wasn't fully rebuilt until the Red Empire was established. Now strange beasts and dark magics have built the city into a place of horror and splendor. Immense red towers reach into the sky, concentric walls divide the city in strange pattern, entire districts exist as networks of tunnels and submerged buildings. * The Cardinal Republic ** Western Russia, the heartland of the empire. * The Scarlet Steppe ** Siberia * The Persimmon Coast ** Far east Russia. Ruled by a necromantic sorceress called the Pheonix Queen * The Carmine Pass ** Georgia and Azerbaijan * The Maroon Khanate ** Khazakstan, Uzbeistan, Turkministan * The Garnet Province ** Belarus and the Baltics * The Bloodred Court ** A Vampire oligarchy rules over Romania. Unearthly Artifacts and Locations The Road of Thorns Temelchester * A chilly walled town where it is always night or dusk but never day. Sometimes in rains, sometimes it snows, and sometimes ash falls from the sky. It has three gates. One gate leads to old ruins in an isolated part of Britain, another gate opens up in in valley in the Himalayas, the final gate leads to a seemingly infinite coast with beaches of obsidian sand that lie on the Abyssal Sea. The Abyssal Sea * In general ** The sky over the Abyssal Sea is always dark. The water of the sea is has an inky blackness to it. Storms are common, as are sea monsters. Sometimes the only light is the faint glow of souls drifting through the water ** They say it is the sea between worlds, connecting the mortal lands and the realms of the dead. *** Souls and spirits use the Abyssal sea to travel between various underworlds and mysterious lands. ** The geography of the Abyssal ** Mortal Sailors *** On rare occasions, mortal sailors may find themselves in these seas by accident, but they must beware, for if they sail to far they will never be able to return, being forever trapped on the Abyssal sea unaging until they are trapped on one of the underworld shores, or are killed by a massive leviathan. The farther you go into the Abyssal sea, the farther you will be trapped away from mortal lands. *** Some mortal explorers purposefully sail the Abyssal sea, looking for treasure or trying to cheat death. ** Nightmares *** If you have a nightmare while on the Abyssal sea, whatever fear you dream up is often manifested. As you might guess this leads to a terrifying vicious cycle. ** The Island of Ghosts *** They say that some souls with a strong enough will to live, will rest on this island before being dragged off to their destinations. Sometimes, intrepid explorers will try to find their recently deceased loved ones on this island and take them back to the lands of the sun. Most fail. ** Whitelead Island *** A pale craggy island dominated by rocks of lead ore. Small trees cling to the windy rock. Adventurers visit the island because many of the rocks contain silver and flecks of high purity Rhodium. *** Their is a driftwood house on the northwest hill. An old man with one gold eye lives there. If he gives you advice, listen. ** The Ghost Lands *** They say if you venture to far from mortal shores, you can return to the world of the living by dwelling in the ghost lands, a ring of continents constructed by the nightmares of the living and the memory of the inhabitants. The souls of the ghost lands are trapped between worlds. ** The Styx Delta *** If you go far enough into the Abyssal sea you may find a plutonian shore with a vast river that empties into the Abyssal sea. The river is wide enough for boats, and if you travel up it you may find yourself in one of the underworlds; however, no one is certain, for if you travel up the Styx far enough to reach the true lands of the dead, you will never be able to return to the mortal world. ** The Major Rifts (In descending order by size) # Shawneetown Rift - 1821 # Pacific Rift - time immemorial # Hiroshima Rift - 1945 # Klodzko Rift - 1799 # Khuldara Rift - 1814 # Black Forest Rift - 1388 # Amazon Rift - time immemorial # Aokigahara Rift - 864 Major Monsters The Living * Humans (also known as the Unclaimed) ** Explanation: These creatures evolved from primates, losing much of their hair and gaining an extremely high level of intelligence. ** Created: They propagate through sexual reproduction. ** Traits: Many are fearful of other monsters, and this pushes them to craft counters to many of the other monster species out there. ** Abilities: They are extraordinarily intelligent and competent at crafting weaponry, allowing them to build weapons to defeat many other monster species. In addition, they have the most powerful of energies available to them: the Soul. It is what most monster species crave in humans, and fuels the ability to transform into different species with specific rites or actions. ** Weaknesses: They are weak individually, and rely on prep time to build their specialized weaponry. Surprise attacks on these guys usuallly work. * Pumpkin Monster ** Explanation: Parasites infect pumpkins. They form bodies out of whatever is nearby, usually vines or human skeletons. ** Created: Pumpkin seed planted from a pumpkin monster will grow to be pumpkin monsters themselves. ** Traits: Most are aggressive toward humans. If they live long enough they can gain sentience and are sometimes quite friendly. ** Abilities: They can generate fire, but are limited by their pseudo candles. ** Weaknesses: If the candle is blown out the monster will go dormant. * Immortals ** Explanation: ** Created: ** Traits: ** Abilities: ** Weaknesses: * Witches ** Explanation: They appear to use some kind of runic equations in order to manipulate reality in very strange and specific ways. ** Created: They have a specific cult, which kidnaps small children and inducts them into their clan, teaching them the mysterious arts of witchery. ** Traits: Fond of tattoos and hallucinogens taken around a circle. Attitudes towards normals vary by group--some merely want to be left alone, while others enjoy tormenting humans and creating fear for their own amusement. ** Abilities: Again varies by particular cult: The Incendiary Cult, for instance, specializes in fire runes. There are cults for Necromancy, Divination, Naturomancy (manipulation of nature like plants and the weather), and several others. Abilities common to most witches include minor telepathy, minor illusions, and the ability to fly on broomsticks or carpets. ** Weaknesses: Again varies by cult association: Fire is weak to water, Necromancy to life magic, etc. However, most witches (with the exception of Fire witches) are weak to fire, and pretty much all witches are weak to the power of holy symbols not associated with their order. * Deep Ones ** Explanation: Primordial fish people who live in underwater cities. ** Created: Some say they are forgotten ancestors of humans. Due to intense inbreeding, there has to be 1 human parent every three generations to preserve fertility. ** Traits: A civilization from at least 4000 years ago. Their population and technology has declined ever since one of their land travelers caught the black death in the 1600s. ** Abilities: Stronger than humans. They can operate underwater easily. *** Advanced Technology: They wear scaly green armor made from lightweight polymers than can stop bullets. They use genetically engineered creatures resembling tentacles/whips that project electricity. They have a genetically engineered slime that can seep its venom into a human's bloodstream through the skin creating a powerful addiction. ** Weaknesses: *** They don't use traditional projectile weapons since those don't work very well underwater. Their vehicles are almost all underwater based. They are very susceptible to fire. * Sea Monsters * Supernatural Serial Killers ** Scholars have noticed that individuals who are criminally insane seem to be able to draw energy from nearby rifts, increasing general endurance. The Dead * Ghosts ** Explanation: The lingering corporeal remains of someone's soul, able to see, hear and sometimes talk, as well as be seen and heard by select people ** Created: Someone dies before they can complete a task they were set on completing. Their soul lingers and drifts around the material plane, continuing progress on the task until it is complete ** Traits: Often vengeful and delusional, they tend to attack anyone who reminds them of wrongs done in the past. ** Abilities: Floating, invisibility, incorporality, telekinesis, illusions, shape changing. ** Weaknesses: Can be sent to the beyond with an exorcism spell, or misdirected at a harmless target with a spell of confusion. Will also cease to exist on this plane if their unfinished task is completed. * Skeletons ** Explanation: Human skeletons, or skeletons of any kind, really, but usually human, that can walk and interact with the world with a level of sentience--often used as slaves/servants to magic-users. ** Created: With certain arcane runic rites, witches can raise the ancient dead to serve as servants. They are powered by the long-lost souls from beyond the rift, which is used for energy by the transparent fungus like exoplasm (not to be confused with ectoplasm) that holds the joints together. The exoplasm can reform after being separated, making skeletons very hard to permanently kill. ** Traits: Intelligence, subservience, speaking only through writing or hand signs, servile snarkiness. ** Abilities: Hand signing, intelligence, functional immortality so long as the spell is working. ** Weaknesses: They lack free will in most cases as part of the rite that made them. The rite is a rune inscribed indelibly on the skull of the skeleton. Change the rune in specific ways, and you can give the skeleton free will, or dissipate the soul keeping it together, functionally killing it. The Undead * Werewolves ** Explanation: Human hosts are controlled by an alien parasite that originally infected wolves. ** Created: When two werewolves have a child, that child will be a potential werewolf. If a werewolf has a child with a non werewolf, the child will only become a potential werewolf if it kills someone. Potential werewolves become full werewolves after they first die. ** Traits: Werewolves are unable to feel empathy for humans. They feel intense pleasure at killing and eating humans. ** Abilities: *** During human form they have improved senses and reflexes. They can heal any wound, even amputations (roughly thrice as fast as a human). *** On nights during full moon, (and after if they eat enough humans), they transform into wolf-human hybrids. During transformation they have increased speed and strength. Their senses and reflexes are even more impressive than in human form. They can heal any wound 50 times faster than a normal human. ** Weaknesses: *** Wounds created by silver heal at human rate. *** Have to struggle to not fall back on instinct instead of human ingenuity during combat. * Vampires ** Explanation: Parasites from beyond the rift that inhabit the region between the human heart and brain. It has two central nodes, one dispersed web in the host brain, and one in the host heart. Transmitted via blood. ** Created: If a human ingests vampire blood and dies within three days they will rise again as a vampire. ** Traits: Vampires must drink human blood to survive. The older they are, the more powerful they are. ** Abilities: Varies depending on age. *** 0-7 days (nenorocit): Parasite is still growing and changing it's host. Human levels of speed, strength, senses, and reflexes, but without any psychological barriers. *** 7 days to - 5 years (sclav): Heal at accelerated rate. Can heal amputated arm over the course of a day. Slightly faster, stronger, and better reflexes than humans. Much better senses. *** 5 - 20 years (Picior): More than twice as fast and strong as humans. Can heal amputated arm over the course of several hours. Total night vision. *** 20 - 60 years (Ghera): More than three times as fast and strong as humans. Can heal amputated arm over the course of an hour. Can sense other consciousnesses. Can transform into dire wolf over the course of three days. *** 60 - 140 years (Amorsa): More than five times as fast and strong as humans. Can heal amputated arm over the course of 15 minutes. Can communicate psychically. Can transform into giant bat or dire wolf over the course of seven hours. *** 140+ years (Maestru): More than ten times as fast and strong as humans. Can heal amputated arm over the course of an 1 minute. Can dominate psychically. Can transform into giant bat, or dire wolf over the course of half an hour. ** Weaknesses: *** 0-7 days (nenorocit): Parasite is still growing and changing its host. Poisoned and killed within 30 minutes by direct sunlight or Garlic. Wooden stake through heart kills them. Decapitation or incineration kills them forever. Controlled by vampire who sired them. *** 7 days to - 5 years (sclav): Poisoned and killed within three hours by direct sunlight or Garlic. Wooden stake through heart paralyzes them and slows healing. Decapitation or incineration kills them forever. Controlled by vampire who sired them. *** 5 - 20 years (Picior): Poisoned and killed within 1 day by direct sunlight or Garlic unless it feeds enough. Wooden stake through heart paralyzes them and slows healing. Decapitation or incineration kills them forever. Cannot touch or look upon religious symbol without great pain. *** 20 - 60 years (Ghera): Poisoned and killed within 3 days by direct sunlight or Garlic unless it feeds enough. Wooden stake through heart paralyzes them and slows healing. Decapitation or incineration kills them forever. Cannot touch or look upon religious symbol without great pain. *** 60 - 140 years (Amorsa): Can stand direct sunlight but cannot use physical powers during sunshine. Garlic makes them very sick and depletes their powers. Cannot touch or look upon religious symbol without great pain. *** 140-1000 years (Maestru): Can stand direct sunlight but cannot use physical powers except for healing during sunshine. Garlic makes them slightly sick and depletes their powers. Cannot touch or look upon religious symbol without great pain. *** 1000+ years (Millenia Maestru): Can use all physical powers in direct sunlight. Garlic only depletes their powers. Can look upon religious symbol with ease. But for some strange reason, they have a compulsion to count tiny objects spilled in front of them. A small "family" of these is stuck on the beaches of California, counting all the grains of sand and feeding on any human hapless enough to encounter them. * Zombies ** Explanation: A hive-mind parasitic mutation of rabies called the Undying Plague. Most infectious between humans. ** Created: When a human is infected with the Undying Plague. ** Traits: No thoughts other than feeding. Can survive indefinitely post-infection. Pale-green, slightly translucent "faded" skin. ** Abilities: Drunk humans but more energetic, some wonder if the Undying Plague forms chloroplasts underneath the skin ** Weaknesses: Fire, dehydration, blades The Fiends * Devils ** Explanation: Twisted beings from beyond the rift, they evolved to sentience roughly contemporaneously with humans, but evolved to feed off human soul energy. ** Created:They, like any other creature, emerge from sexual relationships with members of their own species. Can also breed with humans, creating Half-Demon hybrids called the Hellions. ** Traits:Manipulative and cunning, they often acquire souls through offering deals. ** Abilities: Reality manipulation, Extreme Lawyerish sneakiness in deals ** Weaknesses: Generally have a giant fucking ego--they will always accept a challenge or wager, even if it means death for them if they lose. Not to mention: they cannot cheat or break a deal or wager as written--doing so would result in their death. * Demons ** Explanation: ** Created: ** Traits: ** Abilities: ** Weaknesses: The Elders (Main Article: The Unnamed Ones) Earth 13 is the only non-prime Earth on which people know about the Unnamed Ones. They managed to make contact and send out fiendish and undead abominations. The Elders, as the Unnamed Ones on Earth 13 are called, have titles instead of names. Important Nameless The Unyielding Steward of the Blinding Throne The Prince of the Blinding Chorus The Silent Watcher The Chanter of the Heights The Darkly Crowned King of Nightmares The Red Priest